Mmmerino

Lots of knitting with Merino here in Orange Couch Land.

I'm working on the second Twisted Flower sock, finally.


I also whipped up this project for a dear friend who spends her days in a refrigerated lab.


Pattern: Hermione's Cable and Bobble Hat, Charmed Knits
Yarn: Filatura di Crosa Zara (100% merino), just under 2 balls.



I am obviously no good at this "self-portrait" thing. Let's pretend the off-centeredness is me being arty.

This post contains another shot of me dressed as a ghost

I'd like to start off by thanking Amanda of K is for Knitter for nominating me for the Rockin' Girl Blogger award!



These awards were started by Roberta Ferguson, and now I am supposed to 1) give her credit, 2) put up the badge and 3) add 5 other rockin' girl bloggers to the list.

Here are my nominees. This is hard!
Auntie Ann, my bestest blogging buddy, and her totally sweet socks.
Sherri, who knits beautiful things and has a beautiful outlook on her faith and family.
Amy of Sea Anemone, because she finds such awesome fabrics and colors and OMG I wish I could sew as well as her (or at all).
Melissa of Indigo Mouse, who has great taste in sweaters and writes about her projects so well.
Heather of Knitting and Reading, because I love reading about fun books when I don't have time to read the books themselves.

Whew, that was a lot of HTML. Ok, well Amanda nominated me because (blush) I "always [have] amazing projects to show off." Lucky for you guys, I plan on living up to that in this post!

I finished the knitting on Wednesday...


...but it still wasn't looking great as a veil.


Before, with yardstick for scale: about 38" across.


And after, about 60" across.


Click to embiggen. The only detail shot I took was a closeup of the thing's one flaw, and I don't really feel the need to show that one around ;-)

In this blog's long tradition of crap photography, that's all I have for you right now. But I should be able to get better pictures next weekend, so stay tuned.

Oh, and you will have to wait until March to see me play ghostie again.

Comps!

I am remembering this girl scout song I used to love:

I am slowly going crazy
1 2 3 4 5 6 switch
Slowly am I crazy going
6 5 4 3 2 1 switch

And with all girl scout songs, you sing it overandover, getting faster and higher pitched with each verse. It's got a good tune.

So today my comprehensive exams started. These work differently in every school and in every department, so here's a brief description:

You enter the program, and you take classes for two years. Then you spend one summer studying everything you learned in those two years over again, and then some. At the end of the summer you take your exams, and then you get to start working on your dissertation. There are three written exams, one for each of your three fields. Then the next week, your three professors ask you questions about your written exam and everything else you have learned in the last two years.

It is a stressful time. I think today went OK, but I'm waiting to look over my answers until I've finished all three exams. But if I don't get around to reading your blog or responding to your emails any time soon, please forgive me.



Luckily the mailman brought me something to snuggle while I stress. Lime N Violet Sasquatch Sock yarn in Snow Lake. Sadly, I apparently take bad pictures when under stress.

Wish me luck!

Edging!

1/3 of the edging is done, and it's lookin good!




If I don't run out of yarn I will be cutting it veeerrrry fine. Cross your fingers!

A real veil update

I've finished the center pattern and the first 2 of the 11 "plain stuff before you attach the edging" rows. I just LOVE the way the viney parts look.


Still, there's a long way before this becomes something I can wear to my wedding without everybody being really, really embarrassed for me.


(wow, is that lifeline ugly and obvious or *what*?)

And here's how much yarn I have to get there:


Can you believe that the whole project will (hopefully) only be one skein? That is a whole lot of yarn, guys!

I have been the very fortunate recipient of another great knitting gift! My fellow gamer friend Liz (who is always very nice about my knitting and even wears the socks I made her) brought me these great needles with dice on the ends!


They're sparkly and thus a little hard to catch with my sad little camera. I have to find something to knit with them during DnD games, because how great would that be?